The void shook with fire. Aurora stood tall again, her flames rising brighter than ever. Beside her, Mason’s form had returned, not faint, not broken, but whole. His silver eyes no longer glowed with shadow, but with light. His hand was warm in hers, steady, real.Aurora’s chest ached with relief. Tears streaked down her face, mixing with blood and ash. She whispered his name again, as if afraid he might vanish. “Mason…”He smiled faintly, his voice calm, grounding her like it always had. “I’m here.”Her grip tightened around his hand. “You, you came back.”Mason’s eyes softened. “I never left. You carried me, Aurora. You carried all of us.”The sparks swirled around them, glowing brighter, filling the void with light. The souls whispered faintly, their voices no longer screams, but songs.Aurora’s heart lifted. For the first time in what felt like forever, she wasn’t alone.Vazquez staggered back, his broken form twisting with rage. Cracks split wider across his chest, smoke pouring

The sky above the academy cracked open. For days, the air had been heavy with shadow, mirrors blooming across the walls, whispers filling every hallway, but now, in one single moment, everything broke.The mirrors shattered, raining silver dust. The shadows screamed, twisting like smoke, then vanished into the air. The earth trembled, the heavens shook, and then, silence.Norra fell to her knees in the courtyard, her hands pressed over her chest. She gasped as the heavy pressure that had been crushing her soul for weeks suddenly lifted.The watchers who had been bound to the glass collapsed, their bodies falling limp. Some wept. Some stared blankly at the sky. Aurora’s name passed through their lips like a prayer.Norra’s heart pounded as she looked up at the sky. It was burning, not with shadow, but with light, golden fire spilling from a crack that stretched across the horizon. Her throat closed. She whispered, trembling. “Aurora… what have you done?”John rushed to her side, his fa

The courtyard was silent. The fire had gone, leaving only smoke curling through the broken air. The ground was cracked, the walls scorched, the academy bells silent at last.At the center of it all, burned deep into the stone, was the mark: the shape of a flame. Norra stared at it, her chest heaving, her tears falling freely. She fell to her knees, pressing her hands to the mark as though she could pull Aurora back through it. Her voice broke in a whisper. “You can’t be gone… you can’t…”Around her, the students gathered slowly, their faces pale and hollow. No one spoke. Some were crying quietly, others just staring at the mark in stunned silence. One boy whispered shakily, “She… she saved us.”A girl beside him wept, clutching her arms. “But she’s gone. She’s really gone.”Their voices spread like ripples, sorrow echoing across the courtyard. John stood a few steps away, his silver eyes fixed on the mark. His jaw was tight, his fists clenched, his body trembling with something he c

The courtyard was silent after the blaze. The flame mark glowed faintly in the stone, pulsing like a dying heartbeat. The survivors sat in a circle around it, their faces pale and heavy with grief. Norra had not moved in hours. Her hands rested on the mark, her forehead pressed against the warm stone. Her tears had dried, but her eyes were hollow, her voice faint. “She gave everything,” she whispered. “She was all we had.”The students bowed their heads. No one argued. No one dared until the air stirred. The mark flared suddenly, brighter than before. Sparks rose into the night, golden and silver, swirling together.The students gasped. Some cried out in fear, others in awe. Norra lifted her head sharply, her heart pounding. “Aurora…?”But the light was different this time. Stronger. Sharper. Not soft, like Aurora’s flame, but cutting, like steel through darkness.John stepped forward slowly, his silver eyes narrowing. “Wait. That isn’t her.”The sparks twisted upward, shaping into

The road back from the Black Hills was heavier than the march east. They carried fewer supplies, fewer voices. Some who had left with Mason did not return. Their bodies lay buried beneath the charred ruins of the village, marked only by scorched stones and the smell of ash.Norra walked beside Mason in silence, her small hands clenched into fists. She had watched him burn shadows with fire that was not his. She had seen him shake after, skin pale, breath ragged.She had wanted to scream at him to stop. But she hadn’t. Because the shadows would have swallowed them all if he hadn’t.Now, with each step, her chest ached with a fear she could not voice. Refugees followed them west. Men, women, children with hollow eyes. They spoke in whispers that spread like smoke. “They say he carries the Saint’s fire.”“They say the silver-eyed warrior burns darkness itself.”“They say Aurora gave him her soul.”Mason heard them. He ignored them. His silver eyes stayed forward, cold as steel, but John